Well, I dared myself to do this… I created a kind of “music preview podcast”. A lot of it is me talking about music and also showing off samples of a song each by three of my current favorite bands. If you listen to it, be warned: It was (sort of) mastered at an appreciable volume. So if you’re wearing headphones, turn down the volume before listening!! Also, the recording software I used had some kind of noise removal filter that did a “ok” job, but instead of the background noise I wanted to get rid of, I now have some digital high-pitched noise in there with my voice. This teaches me that if I ever want to do another one, turn off the external hard disk and its infernal fan! However, the music sounds great for 64Kbps!

Note: This is also a enhanced podcast, which is an AAC / m4a file. Meaning that (I think) only iTunes can play it. All you Windows users, please don’t be afraid to download iTunes for Windows. For what it’s worth, not only can it play these files, but it’s a really good music jukebox, too!

iTunes users: Click on “Advanced” tab, click “Subscribe to podcast”, a URL window will open. Copy and paste this address in there:

http://members.cox.net/esostorage357/podcast.xml/

Update 8/20: If you don’t want to use iTunes, and are feeling frisky enough to see if your browser or music app can play it, here’s the link to the .m4a file. If that file doesn’t work on your system, here’s the link to the new .mp3 file!

Get it while I have the files up… they’re taking up gobs of space on my measly Cox server portions. Have fun!

P.S.: I read my last entry, in particular the comments I made about DJ’s and their opinions, and that I find talk shows are boring… Well, I retract that (sort of). I guess I can have an overinflated opinion of music I like!

Introduction: As I’m a Apple Mac user, and have one o’ dem fancy dancy iPods, I just had to check out this podcasting craze. Not all that I hoped it would be. I know there’s a lot of people that love talk shows, and they can be interesting, but I’ve never been much of a talk radio person (I can’t stand a lot of DJ’s and their over-inflated opinions!). Plus, only the people with lots of cash to give away to the RIAA can make even music previews, so we’re seeing a lot of local music from around the world, which rarely interests me (I’ve only heard a few local artists that I’d like!)

This is the crux of my observations; since it’s now possible for anyone to create their own podcasts, and the learning curve in creating XML files for RSS syndication is low to middling, it opened the door for: 1) AAC (.m4a) sound file formats to become increasingly popular, since AAC is used to make enhanced podcasts (images and chapters) which you can’t do with the .mp3/.wav/.wma format and 2) doing what I just did with the special gems in my collection. Let me explain below…

… I have the first side of comedian Steven Wright’s “I Have A Pony” in a large .mp3 file. It’s great comedy, but what’s annoying about having a 48 minute sound file is having to scroll through it all just to locate a particular section. Well, enhanced podcasts can have chaptering enabled. This enables the listener to skip to pre-defined sections in that one file. I took that file, converted it to AAC format (roughly the same size file), and used a chaptering program to break it up into chapters, then had the program compile the chaptered version of the track. Then, I put it into my webserver file, created a XML file for iTunes to recognize as a podcast, then told iTunes to download the track from the computer… back into the computer!! The reason for this last step was to enable the chapter titles to show on the iPod interface. It won’t show them unless it’s been downloaded as a podcast.

It may seem like quite a bit of work, but it worked beautifully, and I’ll only create these enhanced files in special circumstances. I did all this later on with Dream Theater’s 23 minute long magnum opus “A Change Of Seasons”, a piece made up of seven parts. Also, before writing this, I ripped my copy of Queensrÿche’s “Operation: LIVEcrime” live album, which is an hour long (the AAC file weighs in at 59 MB’s), and chaptered it into 17 chapters and podcasted that one as well. It’s most beneficial doing this with a live album, since listening to the album as individual tracks on any .mp3 player disrupts the live feel, because the player always has that slight pause before the next track! NOTE: only iTunes (so far) can read AAC (.m4a) files. Luckily there is a version of iTunes for Windows users, so they don’t have to miss out on the enhanced podcast fun!

P.S.: The other good thing about doing this to live albums (having them all as one file, one chaptered track) is that, if you have whatever music player you’re using on “shuffle” mode, you don’t have to shut off that mode just to listen to a live performance in it’s entirety. Whee!! Next on my list: Live Rush concerts!

I was just informed by my Mom that I missed someone’s birthday. Muriel Carbone (Grandma Muriel as I like to call her) had her birthday on August 12th. I really do try to catch everyone’s birthdays, but the calendar that I have most of them on is usually in the bird’s room / study, and I usually forget to check that one. I’m sorry Grandma… Happy belated birthday!

Along with a new camera, Sunday also was the day we took this little girl home. Her name is Athena; she is a Bourke’s rose parakeet. These birds are known for being quiet and gentle, and get along with almost any other birds that don’t give them trouble. This makes six birds! Christine has promised me no more bird adopting (for a long while, at least)!

Well, I won’t make this too long. I’ve had my camera in Best Buy’s clutches for almost 2 months since they insisted on trying to have it repaired. Well the repair shop was waiting for a part for so long that they requested a “junk” authorization. They did take care of me though… with a newer camera for free, minus $60 for a brand new extended warranty. For some things like sensitive electronics, I wholeheartedly recommend getting the warranty. This is one instance where it saved me from spending $$$$$!